Julia Brownley was elected to the California Assembly last November citing education and the environment as her top two priorities, so it was fitting that she handed out the Lori Petrick Excellence in Education Awards during a private ceremony last Sunday. The fourth annual event, presented by the Palisades Charter Schools Foundation, was hosted by Evette and Dennis Richardson at their home in the Huntington Palisades. Awards and $2,000 grants were presented to Amy Weisberg (Topanga Charter Elementary), Christine Maxwell and Tanya Angeletopoulos (Palisades Charter Elementary), Ruth Mills (Palisades Charter High School), and the P.E. Department at Paul Revere Charter Middle School, which included teachers Ron Brumel, Paul Foxson, Michelle Hernandez, Justin Koretz, Marty Lafolette, Ray Marsden and Holli Omori. ‘You represent the best in education,’ Brownley told the honorees, ‘and you provide a model of teaching practices that can be replicated in other schools. ‘Sometimes it is nice to be recognized for the effort you put in,’ said award-winner Foxson, who also runs Sports Mania summer camps. ‘If you work hard, good things will come.’ American Legion Post 283 gave a $5,000 check and Riviera Masonic Lodge donated $1,000 towards the Foundation’s efforts to unify and support the Palisades charter school complex (which also includes Marquez Elementary, Kenter Canyon Elementary and Canyon School). The foundation also receives grants from the Palisades Junior Women’s Club and booster clubs at each school. Before the ceremony, Brownley told the Palisadian-Post that while education is still her top priority, the reality is that health care and prison reform will take the front seat in the state legislature this year. ‘I have a lot of hope that next year will be the education year,’ she said. ‘This is a year for setting the table for what we can do for the future of California’s educational system.’ As a freshman in the legislature, Brownley has been introduced to the workings of Sacramento, including being asked to chair the Assembly’s budget subcommittee on education finance. She was qualified for this prestigious appointment because of her educational expertise as a 12-year president of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. California is 42nd in state spending for education and ranks about the same or lower for educational performance. ‘You get what you pay for,’ Brownley said, adding that the way education is funded in California is volatile because there are no provisions for a steady stream of revenue. California schools receive a tiny amount of money from the lottery, ranging from $75 per pupil in average years to $110 in good years. ‘California was given a snow job about the panacea of how the lottery would benefit education,’ Brownley said. Because of Proposition 13, year-to-year funding for education varies in California. New Jersey schools, which rely heavily on property tax revenue, spend $13,000 per pupil compared to $6,500 in California. The average given by the National Education Association for state spending is $7,920, although California ranks first in teacher salaries. Another problem is that in previous years federal funding has been used by Governor Schwarzenegger to help balance the state budget, instead of education. Brownley promises that this won’t happen on her watch. Inadequate funding of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ act has left California schools scrambling to try to achieve the benchmarks required of them. In addition to not receiving the funding, the act requires schools to raise their scores certain percentage points each year for their individual populations. If the student population does not meet the required scores, the school and school district are penalized. ‘It’s ridiculous,’ Brownley said. For example, she feels that special-education students should be judged on their individual progress, rather than a standard that is set across the entire nation. Brownley recently joined a delegation that traveled to Washington to talk with Congressional representatives about education. She met with Senator Ted Kennedy, who co-authored the No Child Left Behind bill. He explained that the act needs to be fully funded and that the measurements should be of students’ academic growth over time, rather than high-stakes yearly testing. ‘They seemed to be open to our suggestions,’ Brownley said of her meetings. As far as plans for what needs to change in California in order to once again reposition it as a leader of education in the nation, Brownley cited a state-commissioned educational panel in 2005 entitled ‘Getting Down to Facts Project,’ which brought together an array of scholars from 32 institutions to assess education in California. The findings were released in March. According to the lengthy final document, extra funding was only one aspect of making an educational difference. Other areas cited were more local flexibility, reduced paperwork, increased focus on students, and a way not only to train and attract good teachers, but to replace weak ones. ‘We’re trying to get our arms around the research,’ Brownley said. ‘Obviously, California needs to invest more in education and to be more efficient with the money it already has.’ Many constituents would agree that there needs to be more efficiency in educational spending, given the mismanagement within districts like LAUSD (the Belmont Learning Center’s final cost could exceed $250 million) and San Francisco’s Unified District where as much as $68 million was spent on non-teaching employees, including several officials who are now the focus of an investigation into corruption. In the meantime, even prison reform has an educational aspect. The state pays about $90,000 to take care of one prisoner for a year, and California has one of the highest recidivism rates in the country. If prisoners could be educated or given job training, it might stop the revolving door. ‘For every dollar spent on education, it’s a savings on prisons,’ Brownley said.
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